Emphasizing the Giving in Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving, Joyce and Mike Learakos will rise at dawn to do something to let abused and neglected children know that others care.

The couple will go to their Katella Family Grill restaurant in Orange to help prepare a meal for 150 children from the Orangewood Children’s home.

The breakfast is in keeping with the couple’s desire to lead lives filled with love, family and community involve- ment--not fancy possessions.

“When we grow old, we want to look back and be fulfilled,” says Mike, 35, of Orange.

Last Thanksgiving, the couple held the breakfast for the first time--serving toddlers and teens a feast of eggs, sausage, hash browns, toast and milk--and they plan to do so annually, “for as long as Orangewood lets us,” says Joyce, mother of a 4-year-old son, Ryan.

“As a boy, I was taught to be aware of my neighbor, to treat everyone with respect,” Mike says. “My dad, who had me late in life, is a Depression-era guy with a different set of priorities than my generation has. He taught me it was the basics that counted. I’m fortunate that he passed that along.”

As a child, Joyce was also taught to share, especially around the holidays.

When the Orangewood children--shuttled to the restaurant in a donated luxury bus--arrived at last year’s event, they were pretty excited, Mike remembers.

“It was wonderful seeing them come in, the little ones first.” Besides breakfast, the children were treated to a performance by clowns.

“The older kids were a little slower to come around,” Mike says. “But by the time they left, they were really into it, giving me high-fives.”

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It’s difficult enough for children to be away from home during the holidays, says Mike Ryan, program manager of Orangewood. Imagine the child who must leave home because it’s an unsafe place to be.

“The children of Orangewood are fortunate to have a community so involved in providing activities and donations that the holiday becomes special for them,” Ryan says.

Last year, 3,199 children were admitted to Orangewood--41% of them for neglect, 25% for physical abuse, 22% because of poverty or abandonment, 5% for sexual molestation, 5% for sibling abuse and 2% for emotional abuse.

The average Orangewood resident stays 30 days while receiving total care, Ryan says. “From 24-hour supervision to meals, medical services, counseling, recreation and schooling.”

Their No.1 need? “Feeling safe,” he says.

While they reside at the facility--the current enrollment is more than 260--the county Social Services Agency seeks placement for them in the least restrictive environment, “be it with relatives or a foster home,” Ryan says. “Children who need more structure go into group-home placement.”

You want children to have a “Norman Rockwell kind of day every day of their life,” says Joyce, sitting at one of the beige Formica tables at the couple’s ‘70s-era eatery. “We wanted to help the Orangewood children have a full Thanksgiving Day.”

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If they can use their business to reach out, anyone can, Mike says. “Technically, we’re a small business. It’s not difficult. It just takes an idea and a little bit of effort.”

At this year’s meal, there’s going to be a new menu item.

Last year the breakfast felt so much like a party to the kids, they expected dessert. So, this year it will be sausage and eggs with “vanilla ice cream with sprinkles.’